How many languages are there in human beings now, and how many languages are there in the world?

The world's languages are rich and colorful, and there are independent ethnic languages that are used for daily communication and represent the cultures of various ethnic groups, such as English and Chinese; There are also Esperanto for inter-ethnic communication and Coptic, which is used only for worship, both of which belong to the "languages of the world". Of course, computer language and jargon don't count. So, how many languages are there on Earth?

Since there are no strict defining criteria, the experts are also unclear. However, most researchers believe that language appeared 500,000 years ago.

The concept of "languages of the world" was the first to encompass all the indigenous languages of the independent race, in other words, the native languages spoken by the people who lived and have lived on the planet. When human language skills are developed, people naturally learn these languages, use them for everyday communication, and sometimes learn them across other areas. Russian, English, Arabic, Chinese, Tatar, and other languages are among the independent ethnic languages.

Some Creole languages and various sign languages for the deaf also fall into this category.

In addition to the languages of these independent races, there are other languages that are not used in everyday life. These are not native languages, and people learn through the languages they already master as adults. Some of these languages were once natural ethnic languages, such as Coptic, but are now only used in church services.

Others, like Esperanto, were never a natural language. In addition, it is still uncertain whether Sanskrit and Old Slavic are natural languages or not. However, all of the languages mentioned above are always placed in the context of "languages of the world".

However, the sign language, the language of knowledge, the language of mathematical logic and the language of computers, the language invented by book authors and filmmakers in their works, the terminology and jargon used by people of normal hearing for one reason or another do not belong to the concept of "the language of the world".

Most researchers believe that languages appeared 500,000 years ago, and that it is estimated that languages used for oral communication appeared later (200,000 years ago at the latest) or earlier (until 1 million years ago). However, no one knows exactly how human language came to be.

The languages of the earth are structurally complex, and there is no such thing as a simple language, because each language must perfectly express the culture of the speaker. Experts also do not know how many languages exist in the world, because there is no strict standard for defining whether two languages are just different separate ethnic languages or the diversity of languages (dialects) of one independent ethnic group. If a language has been consistent throughout its history, it is also difficult to say what changes have produced a new language.

In addition to this, it is also uncertain whether science has learned about all the languages that exist on Earth. In summary, according to the estimated minimum, there are at least 2,500-3,000 independent ethnic languages in the world, but the maximum figure is much larger.

The top 8 languages in the world are as follows:

1. English: It is the official language of the most countries, and English is also the most widely used second language in the world;

2. Chinese: It is the most spoken language in the world, mainly circulated in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the United States, Myanmar, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other countries.

3. Spanish: It belongs to the western branch of the Indo-European Romance language family, which is the second largest language in the world, second only to Chinese, mainly in Latin American countries;

4. French: It is one of the independent languages of the Romance language with the largest number of speakers after Spanish;

5. German: It is the mother tongue spoken by more than 300 million people and is known as one of the most rigorous languages in the world;

6. The language spoken by Russians and ethnic Russians, the lingua franca of all ethnic groups in the former Soviet Union, and one of the working languages of the United Nations;

7. Portuguese: It is a language of the Romance language family, with more than 200 million native speakers;

8. Turkish: It is a language spoken by 65 million to 73 million people, belonging to the Turkic language family of the Altaic language family, mainly spoken in Turkey.

Ranking of the most difficult languages in the world to learn

1. Chinese (China).

2. Greek (Greek).

3. Arabic (Arabic).

4. Icelandic (Iceland).

5. Japanese (Japan).

6. Finnish (Finland).

7. German (Germany).

8. Norwegian (Norway).

9. Danish (Denmark).

10. French (France).

According to the Handbook on Linguistics and Tools of Language Communication, published in Germany, 5,651 languages have been identified in the world.

Generally speaking, each ethnic group has its own language, and language is one of the important characteristics of a nation. Chinese, English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and French are the main languages of the world and the main working languages of the United Nations.

Chinese is the world's most widely spoken native language, and English is the most widely spoken language worldwide. Language and writing are two different concepts, and often language comes first, and then writing.

The use of language

Language is a tool of thinking and communication, which is closely related to thinking, and is the carrier and material shell of thinking and the form of expression. Language is a system of instructions, which is a system of words and symbols as the material shell, semantic connotations and megalogs as the content of meaning, and the combination of instructions and meanings.

Language is a social phenomenon, the most important communication tool for human beings, a tool for the logical application of thinking and the interactive transmission of information, and a carrier for embodying the achievements of human cognition. Language has stability (inheritance, unlimited transmission ability, and can be preserved by public consensus under certain conditions) and ethnicity (species).

There are currently about 7,000 different languages spoken in the world, but Zhengqin is an estimate of this number, because some languages may have disappeared or are disappearing, and some languages may not have been discovered or recorded. In addition, some languages may be dialects or spoken languages, and there is no formal writing system, so it is difficult to determine the exact number of them.

According to statistics, there are currently more than 7,000 languages in the world.

The world's languages are divided into 9 major language families, namely Sino-Tibetan (southeastern Asia), Indo-European (European, Asian, American), Ural (northern Ural Mountains), Altaic (Balkans, north-central Asia, Mongolia, Russian border, China), Semitic-Han (North Africa, West Asia), Caucasian (Caucasus Mountains), Dravidian (southern and southeastern India), Malay-Polynian (Austronesian languages, in Southeast Asia and Oceania), Austroasiatic language family (southern Asia).

1. Indo-European languages.

The Indo-European language family is the largest language family in the world.

2. Sino-Tibetan language family.

The Sino-Tibetan language family is the second largest language family after Indo-European languages in China and Southeast Asia, ranking first in the world in terms of the number of speakers, with a population of more than 1.5 billion.

3. Semitic language.

The Semito-Hamitic family is a major language family distributed in North Africa and West Asia.

4. Ural languages.

The Ural language family is a family of languages that spread from Scandinavia eastward through the Ural Mountains to northwestern Asia.

5. Altaic language family.

The Altaic language family is spoken by a population of about 100 million people, and the language family is mainly concentrated in the border zone of humid and semi-humid cold temperate coniferous forests and steppes in Central, Northern, West Asia, East Asia and Europe.

6. Eskimo-Aleutian language.

The Eskimo Aleutian language family is a language family located in Alaska, northern Canada, Nunavik, Nunavut, Greenland, and the Chukotka Peninsula in eastern Siberia. The language family is divided into two parts, the Eskimo and the Aleutian languages.

7. African languages.

1) Nigerian-Congolese language family.

2) Koysan language family.

3) Nilo-Saharan languages.

8. Malayo-Polynesian language family.

The main languages are: Malagasy, Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog (Filipino), Alpine, Hawaiian, Maori (New Zealand) and the Pacific Islands of Micronesia, Melar Sonica, Polynesia, etc.

9. Other languages.

There are also language families such as the Micronesian and Dravida languages in Oceania, as well as some Indian languages. There are some languages in the world that, in terms of genealogy, do not belong to any language family, such as Japanese, Sumerian, Basque, Ainu, Ryukyuan, Brushasky, etc.